


keith and lance get kicked out of a mall

by cloudii



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Gen, M/M, Set during S3, Space Mall, but it’s there - Freeform, let keith have fun 2k18, very low key klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 13:56:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14955933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudii/pseuds/cloudii
Summary: Another trip to the Space Mall ends in some stolen merchandise, jumped on display furniture, and an overall good time for Keith and Lance.





	keith and lance get kicked out of a mall

**Author's Note:**

> It’s been a while!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I started writing this like. Before s5 dropped lmao, there was gonna be more to it but I just wanted it done yknow?
> 
> Thank you SO much to Noelle for beta reading this, it was very much appreciated!!! <3

For some god awful reason, Coran decided that it was a good idea to go to another shopping mall.   
  
(Thankfully, the rest of the team convinced him to at least go to a different mall, seeing as they were chased out of the last one they were in.)   
  
They couldn’t run a rebellion without the proper supplies, and while their various alliances left them with more than nothing, there were quite a bit of things they still needed. From parts and equipment for repairs to long lasting food supplies for the less fortunate planets they liberated, it was quite a long list.   
  
Everyone had a small amount of items to find, along with the money to pay for them. The plan was similar to the last time they went shopping: split up and meet back in the food court at a specific time.   
  
Lance found what he needed relatively quickly. No one seemed to question a teenager buying an ungodly amount of freeze dried food. Maybe a seventeen year old buying 50 packages of what seemed to be jerky was normal is space. (But Lance imagined that it was simply that the retail workers in space were just as miserable as the ones back home; too tired to notice or care.)   
  
Lugging everything back to the food court proved to be more of an issue than buying it all. The carts from the store weren’t allowed to leave the place. One employee half heartedly offered their help, but Lance politely refused.   
  
His regret was instantaneous.   
  
Lance could barely see through all the bags he carrying as he slowly but surely made his way to what he hoped was the food court. He mainly followed the smell of alien fast-food. When he at last reached his destination, he dropped all his bags onto an empty table and sat down with a relieved sigh.   
  
He looked to the clock to see that he still had well over three hours till everyone was supposed to meet back. Well, great.   
  
Fifteen minutes passed. Waiting was starting to get boring, but there wasn’t much more he could do. He couldn’t leave the bags here and walk around; they could be stolen. But he also couldn’t carry them around with him, because if he did, he could trip and die from being crushed. A couple packs of jerky may have not been awfully heavy, but enough to feed a small village was another story altogether.   
  
It was a shame because there were so many shops that he wanted to check out. It was a different mall than last time, which meant different stores to explore!   
  
Just when he was about to lose all hope, he heard someone call out his name.   
  
“Lance, my boy!” Coran yelled from across the expansive food court. He had quite a few bags himself, though not as many as Lance.   
  
“You finished up early as well? I must say, the dealer I reasoned with was much more agreeable the last one! It could’ve been my lack of a disguise, maybe it established a sense of trust. I’ll have to keep that in mind.” He rambled on as he sat down next to Lance. “Y’know, I once snuck into an enemy gala without a disguise. I had nothing but my good looks and suave demeanor.”   
  
Lance laughed quietly, but the moment was short lived. Coran didn’t continue his story like Lance had expected he would, which he was kind of grateful for. Maybe he had noticed Lance’s lack of enthusiasm.   
  
He looked back at the clock impatiently. Three hours and fifteen minutes seemed like a long time. He sighed.   
  
“Tell you what, how about I watch your things for you while you go have fun?” Coran suddenly offered.   
  
Lance’s eyes went wide, “Really!?” He broke out into a smile.   
  
Coran nodded. “You should enjoy your youth. And I need to rest the ol’ joints anyway-“ Lance nearly tackled him in a hug.   
  
Lance thanked the Altean profusely. Coran laughed heartily and patted his back in a very uncle-like manner.   
  
As Lance was walking away he heard Coran encouragingly yell, “Go have too much fun!” That wasn’t how the phrase went, but Lance just smiled and waved as he ran off.   


 

* * *

 

The mall had a lot of stores to offer, Lance soon found out. There were the few staples of every shopping mall, a clothing store, a furniture store, a scented candle shop that was still in business even though no one ever seemed to be in it.   
  
One store seemed to be the space equivalent of Lush. It shouldn’t have surprised Lance as much as it did, humans couldn’t be the only race to enjoy those kind of things. This store, however, had products for skin, scales, feathers and anything else imaginable.    
  
However, Lance didn’t have much money left over from what was given to him, so he mainly just window shopped.   
  
He enjoyed walking around the mall. Though it was countless miles from earth, it felt familiar. Loud and bright and busy, it was a part of home he didn’t think he’d miss so much.    
  
People of all kinds milled around. Bratty, loud kids begging their parents to buy them something. Groups of teenagers laughing amongst themselves. Couples walking hand in hand, paying attention to each other more than the things around them. The people might all look different, but there was something distinctly human about them whole place.   
  
Or maybe, Lance thought, humans just weren’t so different from the rest of the universe.   
  
He was snapped out of his thoughts by a voice. Rather, two very loud voices.   
  
He wasn’t the only one who had noticed it, as various other shoppers turned their heads towards the noise as well. It all seemed to be coming from a weapons shop.   
  
From the bits and pieces he could make out, it sounded like an argument. Something like “I know you touched it” and “kids these days have no respect”. Then another voice rang out.   
  
“I said I didn’t touch anything!” the voice shouted, cracking.   
  
Ah. Keith.   
  
When Lance walked into the commotion, sure enough, there was Keith. To his side was a stand of some sort full of knives of various sizes, and in front of him looked to be the store manager. He looked remarkably like a frog, just much bigger and with a lot more eyes than you’d find on an earth frog.   
  
Neither of them seemed to notice Lance’s presence; the manager’s mouth moved in a strangely humanoid way as he continued to yell.   
  
“Well one of them is missing, and I don’t see anyone else around who could’ve stolen it!” he shouted.   
  
Keith let out a frustrated sigh, like this argument had been going on for a while. “Look, for the last time I didn’t touch any of your knives.”   
  
”Prove it! Turn out your pockets.”   
  
Keith angrily did as he was told, not breaking eye contact with the frog.   
  
“All of them.”   
  
Keith rolled his eyes and unzipped the pockets of his fanny pack with an unnecessary amount of force. Inside were a few things, none of them being whatever the manager was looking for. “There,” he said.   
  
“I still don’t believe you,” the manager spat indignantly.   
  
They shot their arguments back and forth and Lance watched it like a tennis match for a moment before deciding to intervene.   
  
“Gentleman, gentleman. How about we calm down,” Lance said, arms outstretched in a ‘chill out, dude’ manner.   
  
Keith’s eyebrows raised in surprise as he recognized his teammate. The manager turned his attention to Lance as well, giving him an even stare before asking who he was.   
  
Lance blanked for a moment. “Me? Well..” he stepped closer while he racked his brain for a way out of this, “I’m just a passerby... passing through. Y’know casually, by chance.    
  
“And I just so happened to see the two of you having a dispute! Trust me, sir, I can tell you that this fellow here,” He put a hand on Keith’s shoulder and their eyes met. Keith’s expression was a cross between relief and ‘what on earth are you doing?’ “didn’t lay a finger on your lovely merchandise.”   
  
The manager’s numerous eyes flicked back and forth between the two boys. “You know each other?”   
  
Then two of them looked at each other with uncertainty. They had a quick, silent conversation and both decided that ‘no’ is probably the best answer. Their awkwardly timed ‘no’s overlapped each other. The store manager looked both unconvinced and unimpressed.   
  
“You know what I think? I think you’re—” He pointed a froggy finger towards Lance— “lying for your friend here.”   
  
“Sir,” Lance started to say, looking down at the manager’s name tag, which read ‘Craig’ in bright purple letters. He forced himself to not laugh. “Craig, can I call you Craig?”   
  
“No.”   
  
“Alright, Craig. How about we...” He reached into his pocket and took out a coin, then placed exactly one GAC on the counter with a wink. “forget this whole thing ever happened?”   
  
This, unfortunately, only made Craig angrier. The two paladins slowly stepped away from him.    
  
“Now’s probably a good time to run,” Lance mutters.   
  
“Ya think?” Keith shoots back before the two of them run out the door.   


 

* * *

  
  
Good news and bad news.   
  
Bad news: frogs, especially multi-eyed space frogs, can hop a whole lot faster than you’d think.   
  
Good news: this space frog in particular was quite old and couldn’t hop for very long.   
  
So basically, running through a mall from a giant frog while dodging all the shoppers at the same time was very hard, until it wasn’t. About 30 seconds in Craig had to stop and take a break, leaving Keith and Lance with a clean getaway.   
  
They decided to catch their breath in a relatively secluded hallway that lead to a set of restrooms.   
  
“I think we lost him,” Lance said between breaths. “What did you do to make that guy hate you that much?”   
  
“Uh..” Keith started. He leaned against the wall behind him. A few seconds passed.   
  
“Keith?” Lance questioned. He thought back to the store manager accusing Keith of theft. “Keith, you didn’t.”   
  
Keith looked up to the ceiling, searching for a suitable answer but to no avail. He let out a defeated sigh and lifted the left side of his jacket where, in a concealed pocket, sat a small sheathed knife.   
  
“Oh my god, Keith.”   
  
“It was really expensive, okay!”   
  
“Keith, oh my god.”   
  
“Like, really expensive! Allura only gave me so much money and buying this would’ve run my wallet dry, even though it’s tiny. Plus, it’s pretty.” He took the knife out of his jacket and unsheathed it. Lance had to admit, it was beautiful. The blade was like a metallic rainbow, the colors changing with every motion.   
  
Keith continued, “It was so small and there were a million of them so I figured it would be cheap, but no. I was planning on paying for it, but it was so expensive and I wanted it so bad so—”   
  
“You stole it.”   
  
Keith let out a short sigh. “I stole it.”   
  
There was another moment of silence before Lance bubbled up into laughter.   
  
“Dude, that’s hilarious,” Lance giggled.   
  
Keith stayed silent, his cheeks heating up at the sight of his friend’s laughing face.   
  
But Lance’s laughs turned to fake coughs as someone walked down the hallway. He sputtered out an “Act natural!” to Keith, who quickly hid his knife back in his jacket and began to inconspicuously inspect his nails. The stranger barely spared them a glance as they walked into the bathrooms. Success.   
  
The two boys sighed in relief (as if the stranger could’ve known that one of them just shoplifted a pretty space knife) and then fell into a slightly uncomfortable silence.   
  
“So uh,” Keith mumbled, “thanks for getting me out of there, I guess. But I still have my errands so...” He pushed off the wall behind him and gave a curt wave.   
  
Lance watched him start to walk away, then spoke up. “I could... come with you?”   
  
Before Keith could get a word in Lance was already continuing, “I already finished my list, and Coran’s watching my stuff in the food court, so I may as well help you with your stuff.”   
  
Lance threw a hand behind his neck. “Plus, I dunno, maybe we could also like, just walk around? Have fun? Do normal teenager things for once?”   
  
Keith stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked away from the other boy. “Do we really have time for ‘normal teenager things?’ There’s a war raging out there.”   
  
“War or not, we’re still kids.” Keith’s attention snapped back to Lance, who’s tone had changed drastically from moments ago. “It doesn’t have to be all serious all the time, everyone deserves a break now and then.”   
  
The two stared at each other till Keith dropped his head with a sigh. “You can tag along. But we’re buying the things we need before going to any other stores!”   
  
“Of course!”   


 

* * *

  
  
They didn’t do that.   
  
In Keith’s defense, Lance was hard to say no to. Or stay mad at.   
  
The mall was big and there were plenty of stores that neither of them had been in yet. Plenty of places to “wreak havoc,” as Lance put it.    
  
Lance dragged Keith around by the wrist like an excitable child, but Keith had to admit that he wasn’t having bad time.    
  
It was just that he hadn’t planned on aimlessly milling through miscellaneous stores like they were right now.   
  
The weapons shop was the only place he stopped in, but weapons are practical. Other than that, he was dead set on finding whatever book Allura needed and leaving. Maybe stopping for a snack if he had the chance; everyone needed to eat.   
  
At the very least, he probably wouldn’t have found himself walking into the space equivalent to Bath & Body Works if he had come alone.   
  
There were lotions and perfumes and shampoos as far as the eye could see. Lance tried so many scents that by the end he couldn’t pick out one from the other. Keith smelled one on the little paper tab for perfume testing, got a headache from it, and decided that he wanted to leave.   
  
“We have to get the thing Allura asked for eventually,” Keith would say.   
  
“Don’t be a party pooper, we’ll get to it,” Lance would reply.   
  
Rinse and repeat, the cycle would continue. Lance just wanted to show Keith a good time, but his teammate wasn’t as willing as he had hoped. That was okay, Lance had a few more tricks up his sleeve.   
  
They popped in and out of multiple stores, some more interesting than others. They tried on clothes for a while; Lance picked out the most ridiculous things he could find. He tried convincing Keith to join him to no avail. Still, he showed off his fine alien fashions to his friend, trying to get him to have some fun.   
  
A few things he tried on included: a bright blue, heavily sequined suit with ridiculous shoulder pads, a stretchy bodysuit made from a denim-like material, and a turtleneck sweater that was so long that it went well past his head and arms.   
  
Keith tried to stifle his laughter at Lance’s ridiculous appearance.   
  
Lance picked at the trim of the turtleneck and looked at him with a wry smile. “Something funny?”   
  
“Yeah, uh... Just about everything about,” Keith pointed at the sweater. “that.”   
  
“It’s called fashion, Sweetie. Look it up.”   
  
Keith couldn’t contain his laughter at that and snorted. (Lance considered that a rousing success.)   
  
After that, Keith chilled out a bit more. They stopped through some more places: a music shop, a toy store, and a mini-mart that held the same atmosphere as a crappy gas station stop. With each place they unleashed a bit more chaos than the last, sometimes getting kicked out of stores one by one. And with each place, Lance could see Keith letting loose little by little, finally letting himself have some fun.   
  
Later on, the two came across a multi-level department store that had a little bit of everything. On the top floor there was furniture, and they lay in as many showroom beds as possible without getting caught.   
  
At some point Lance dared Keith to jump on one of the beds. He, of course, took up the challenge without hesitation.   
  
He didn’t get caught for an impressive amount of time; a few customers saw him but just rolled their eyes at the sight. Lance eventually joined him.   
  
When you’re doing something as dumb and fun as this, Lance thought, the world seems to move in slow motion.    
  
He was happy to see Keith so happy. The guy was under a lot of pressure, and it was no wonder why. With Shiro gone, he was the leader of Voltron. He had told the team time and time again how the role just didn’t feel right to him, how someone else would do a better job. But Black chose him, and that was that.   
  
Hopefully, he wasn’t thinking about all of his newfound responsibilities right now.   
  
The two of them bounced and laughed and playfully pushed each other around. They were completely messing up the perfectly folded sheets, but they were having too much fun to care.   
  
Eventually, a worker did notice them and yelled for them to stop.    
  
“Time to go!” Lance exclaimed as he grabbed Keith’s hand and bolted. They ran down the escalator and were chased out the entrance, laughing the whole way.   
  


Neither of them made a move to let go once they were in the clear, and they made their way back to the castleship, hand in hand.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Dam Allura never got her book, huh
> 
> Ty for reading, let’s hope I get to writing something else soon!! <333


End file.
